Opening craft breweries gets faster as O.C. rules ease

Before Glenn Closson landed a location for his startup brewery, he knew he had to do one thing: hire a food consultant.

Even though his microbrewery wouldn’t be selling food, Orange County health officials treated Beach City Brewery like a restaurant. Closson spent about $8,000 preparing his Huntington Beach brewery for county inspectors, which added steps and costs Los Angeles and San Diego county breweries don’t face.

That local government bottleneck is now over.

Orange County health officials have eased regulations for local beer manufacturing facilities, relinquishing oversight to California’s public health department. The state agency already regulates Los Angeles and San Diego county breweries.

The decision scraps expensive upfront fees and restaurant-style inspections, impacting roughly 17 breweries that don’t serve food in Orange County, according to health agency records. Six of those are new breweries in the planning stages, the county said.

The ruling comes as Orange and Los Angeles counties have seen rapid growth in craft breweries. The number has more than doubled in both counties to nearly 60 since 2009.

In Orange County new brewery owners have complained about the cumbersome red tape they face to get production facilities off the ground. That’s why Closson, a Newport Beach finance manager turned home brewer, hired a restaurant consultant to help him get through the process.

“I knew they were going to be the biggest pain,” said Closson, whose Huntington Beach brewery debuts Saturday.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait, a craft beer fan, put pressure on county officials to streamline the process. The mayor has been encouraging artisanal beer makers to open in the home of Disneyland.

But, brewery owners told him it was hard to get their businesses launched because county inspectors regulated their facilities as if they were making food. The requirements were costing them time and money to meet certain food safety regulations.

“They were jumping through hoops,” Tait said. “A lot of these brewers are artisans. They’re not used to government red tape.”